The Angolan Executive, since 2009, has financed research and development projects, in a competitive and transparent manner, based on the Dispatch published in November 2018, by the Science and Technology Development Project, under an agreement with the African Bank for Development (ADB).
This information was revealed by the Minister of Higher Education, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESCTI), Maria do Rosário Sambo, at the opening of the 7th National Conference on Science and Technology and the 2nd edition of the Ideas, Inventions, Innovation and Technology-Based Entrepreneurship Fair, last week.
Maria Sambo informed that the results obtained so far, resulting from the evaluation of the proposals that were submitted, 25 scientific research projects are being financed, in completely different areas, such as Exact and Natural Sciences, Medical and Health Sciences, as well as in specializing in Engineering and Technology, Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences.
The minister also added that the evaluation of the remaining projects is currently taking place and, in addition to those already mentioned above, 22 more were approved, which will be financed from the month of December.
It was also highlighted that the financing of new projects is conditional on the presentation of progress reports by the coordinators of already financed projects, which unfortunately has caused additional delays.
Regarding economic values, the official revealed that in the first quarter of 2022 funding of approximately US$7,6 million is foreseen, but only for scientific research projects. Along the same lines of conversation, the minister added that, with the aim of promoting an increase in the scientific capacity of staff, a public tender was launched, which resulted in the signing of a contract, which allows XNUMX higher education teachers and Angolan researchers to have access to the main international scientific journals.
BUT: Internet accessibility gap widens in Africa
Still within the scope of access to scientific publications, MESCTI, with some partners, is involved in two initiatives, namely the open access project to scientific information in Angola, in partnership with UNESCO, REDALYC and AmeliCA (networks of scientific journals open access) and Óscar Ribas University, as well as the scientific repository of the CPLP, which was launched today(02).
With regard to human empowerment, public and private Higher Education Institutions, he said, have opportunities for postgraduate training for their staff, both in the teaching career and in the scientific research career.
He highlighted the attribution of scholarships for masters and doctorates, through the annual program of sending 300 graduates and masters, with high performance, to the best universities in the world.
The minister made it known that there are also postgraduate scholarships and will soon start the Doctoral Training Program in CTI, in collaboration with UNESCO, which, in addition to human training (with the training of doctors), also includes infrastructural training -structural, which has to be aligned with the research activities of doctoral students.
Another important aspect of the Executive's intervention, according to the minister, is the strengthening of postgraduate courses in Higher Education Institutions in Angola, through funding from the European Union, with the analysis of the 132 applications received in response to the first public notice, to decide on the allocation of funding, which varies between a minimum of 40 euros and a maximum of 150 euros per course.
Maria do Rosário Sambo guaranteed that three million euros are available to support postgraduate courses.
